SCENE 1
The Kitchen

GUEST: Substitute Host #1

SUBSTITUTE HOST #1:[obviously trying to imitate AB] A wise and learned man once said, “You can’t always get what you want.
But
if you try, sometimes you might find you get what you need.” I can’t think of a
better credo for the kitchen. Who hasn’t found themselves one egg short of an
omelet, or missing a crucial ingredient the moment company arrives.
The art of the substitution is ... is ... um ... an art form onto
itself. [increasingly hesitant] Um ... Certainly, no sales job is needed to sell you on the substitution.
Surely the most ... ah ... sure-fire way to save something from ... um ... something ...
[exasperated] Good grief!AB#1:[enters] Cut! Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. "Good grief"? That’s
Charley Brown. I do, “Oh bother”.SH#1: Sorry. I got it ... [points to his head]AB#1: That’s okay. Look, the Stones line; that was taste. SH#1: Hmm.AB#1: But you need to dial down those alliterations a little.SH#1: But you do that all the time.AB#1: Don’t, don’t, don’t interrupt. Um, you know, whether we’re talking about
a fifth grade science teacher, a beloved television personality ... [both men turn
and mug to the camera] ... or a favorite spice, substitutes
don’t have to be the weak link in the chain.SH#1:[to the camera] And believe me, with a taste of science and a dollop of know-how, even
substitutions can be ... [the opening theme does not play]AB#1: Yeah, look, the real art to this, is, is ... To substitute something,
you’ve got to really understand the thing that you’re replacing. You got to get
inside of it, look at it from every angle. And then when you’ve got it, well,
you find that [now to the camera] with just a touch of the scientific, and a wafer-thin slice of
know-how, even culinary substitutions can be ...

["Good Eats" theme plays]

SCENE 2
The Kitchen

GUEST: David Traylor, Good Eats Crew Member
Substitute Host #2

AB#1:[returning from the theme music] Like that.SH#1: That’s like, exactly what I said.AB#1: No. If that’s what you had said, then you would have gotten the hokey music
and the lame animation. You didn’t, ‘cause, well, you’re just not me. Heh heh.
But that’s okay, we’ve got some lovely car wax for you and some instant rice.DAVID TRAYLOR: [enters and hands SH#1 the prizes and then hustles him away]SH#1: But ... AB#1: Don’t worry, I’ll put away the olives for you.SH#1: I ... AB#1: Don’t worry.

[sighs] Back to the drawing board.

If you ask me, the world of culinary substitutions really breaks down into three
categories. We have:

Emergency substitutions: You need a cup of bread flour, and all you have is
all-purpose. You don’t have time to go to the store. What are you going to do?

Then there are health-related substitutions. This is any substitution that has to be made
because a particular ingredient clashes with, you know, your health needs.

Then, of course, there are the creative substitutions. These are the flights of fancy,
the whims. The “I-don’t-want-to-use-dill”,
“I-don’t-want-to-use-tarragon”. And, you know, come to think of it,
that’s more willful improvisation. We’ll save that for
another show.

SUBSTITUTIONS

1— EMERGENCY

2— HEALTH RELATED

3— CREATIVE

Now, our next substitute “me” won a “Cook Like a Bee” contest, in, um, ...

AB: ... Grand
Rapids?SUBSTITUTE HOST #2: That’s right. But that’s
another show.AB#1: Hey, nice touch. So, what are you going to be substituting today?SH#2: Well, I’ve always loved your biscuit recipe.AB#1: Ahh.SH#2: That show you did with your grandmother was so sweet.AB#1: Aww ... SH#2: Now ... [turns to the pantry]AB#1: Now?SH#2: What if you woke up early one morning to bake biscuits and you discovered,
to your horror, that you were out of baking powder? [gasps]AB#1: That’s your substitution? Baking powder?SH#2: Is that another show, too?AB#1: No, but it would take, like, half a second. It’s the simplest thing in the
world. All chemical leaveners work on the same basic principle that ... Oh,
here, hold this. Just stand there a second.SH#2: Okay.

SCENE 3
Outside

[AB holds a model rocket ship with two liquid chambers, separated by
a barrier] All chemical leaveners work on the simple premise that when a base
and an acid come together in the presence of water, carbon dioxide is released
by the reaction. In this case, the base is baking soda—one of the only bases in
the culinary world, I might add. The acid: common white vinegar. Let’s see what
happens, shall we?
[he stands the rocket on end and the soda and vinegar come together firing
the rocket up and off screen] Uh oh. [a fake bird falls to the ground] Oh, sorry.

SCENE 4
The Kitchen

GUEST: Thing

AB#1: Sweet demo, huh?SH#2: Nah, I was going to do the rocket thing, but I figured it would be talking
down to the audience.AB#1:[a little perturbed] Now ... SH#2:[tries to imitate] Now ... AB#1: Stop that! If you want to make baking powder, there are two different types.
There is single-acting and there’s double-acting. The double-acting releases
gas twice: once, when the ingredients are mixed, and again when they get hot
enough in the oven. Tough to formulate in the home kitchen. Single-acting stuff
is easy to make. Two teaspoons of it. We’ll need one teaspoon of cream of tartar
... SH#2: ... an acidic powder, which is traditionally harvested from the insides
of wine barrels.AB#1: Well, that’s pretty good. We’ll also need an alkali. We’ll use half a
teaspoon of baking soda, the very same kind that went into our rocket. Now, if
you mix that up, you will have a single-acting baking powder. But if you’re not
going to use it right away, you’re going to want to add another ingredient, half
a teaspoon of cornstarch ...SH#2: ... which will prevent the powder from absorbing moisture and setting off
the reaction prematurely.AB#1: Very good. And what else would you put that ingredient in?SH#2: Kosher salt!AB#1:[disappointed in her wrong answer] Oh ... no. [takes the faux baking powder mix away]. Confectioners sugar.
Thing, show her what she’s won.THING:[hands her car wax and instant rice]SH#2:[takes the prizes and then notices Thing, screams and falls down]AB:[to Thing] Don’t worry about it. We’ll ship it.

You know, bringing up this whole biscuit thing is interesting, because there’s
the whole buttermilk to be dealt with. Good substitution.

Despite its moniker, “buttermilk” is not butter and milk. In the old days, it
was the milk that was left over after cream was churned into butter. But these
days, it is usually just skim milk that’s inoculated with a bacteria that
creates lactic acid. And that provides some tang and certainly thickens the
product as well.

BUTTER
MILK

Now in recipes, like, say, biscuits—good southern biscuits—buttermilk adds
flavor; this is true. But it also provides acid. And that is very important,
because a good baking application will be balanced, like an algebra equation. If
you’re going to have proper leavening, the acid needs to be balanced with
alkali, which you get from baking soda and certainly to some degree, from
baking powder.
Now, what if you go and just say, “I’m not going to use buttermilk. I’m going to
substitute regular old milk?” Well, all of a sudden, the equation starts to go
out of balance. Everything goes haywire. And your biscuits end up looking like
this [shows flat biscuits], and that’s not good eats.

What are you going to
do, mister? Well, you’re either going to have to go get that leavening and
recalculate it, or you’re going to have to acidify this milk. And that is easily
done with just a tablespoon of lemon juice added to one cup of skim milk.
Now, it doesn’t exactly make buttermilk, because it won’t be as thick. But the
acid ratio will be just fine. Now you could use vinegar. But I like lemon juice,
because the citric acid adds browning to baked goods. Just a little side
benefit.

1 Tbs. Lemon Juice, Freshly
Squeezed +
1 Cup Skim Milk

Although this already contains all the necessary acids to activate our leavening
agents, chilling it down a bit will give it time for the acids to denature some
of the milk proteins. And that will thicken it a bit which will make it even
more perfect for our biscuits.

The word biscuit comes from the Old French word
bescuit, meaning “twice cooked”.

SCENE 5
The Kitchen

GUEST: Substitute Host #3

Here we have two platters of biscuits. They are identical, except for the fact
that these were made with buttermilk and these were made with our lemon-ated milk.
Now you take a look, you can see that the lemon version has a slight golden
tinge to it, no doubt due to the inclusion of citric acid rather than lactic
acid. But besides that, trust me, there is no evidence of lemon. There’s no
lemon aroma, and [tastes], mmm, definitely no lemony flavor. In fact, I would
just say that’s plain good eats.

Now, next category on our substitution hit list, health subs. That is,
substitutions that must be made because of an intolerance, an allergy, or other
peculiarity particular to your person. Now, about 90% of all food-related
allergic reactions are caused by ...

SUBSTITUTE HOST #3: ... milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy, and wheat.AB#1: Wow, that is very impressive ... SH#3: Thank you.AB#1: ... Substitute #3. Now I understand today, you are going to tell us all
about, food allergies.SH#3: Food allergy. Oh. A food allergy is a reaction to the food that the
immune system mistakes as a harmful alien invader. To protect the body, it
creates hemoglobin [sic, immunoglobulin] antibodies, that react specifically to
that food.AB#1:[softly] Demo.SH#3: Demo?AB#1:[softer still] Demo.SH#3: Oh, demo. Demo. [hands AB a balloon] Hold this. Now, when an invading
protein comes along, the antibody recognizes it. [holds up a sock puppet to
represent an antibody] Aha! And releases histamine from cells, called mast cells
[bursts the balloon with an ice pick which sprays AB with a light dust of some
sort]. And I should know, because I’m deathly
allergic to shrimp.AB#1: That’s great, Substitute #3. You know, we’ve got some lovely parting gifts
for you ... SH#3: No, no, no, no. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I used your coconut shrimp recipe,
on my own super-colossal, hypoallergenic, shrimp. [pulls out a coconut shrimp]AB#1: You’re not going to eat that.SH#3: It’s perfectly safe.AB#1: But you said you’re definitely allergic ... SH#3: Nah, it’s fine. [eats the shrimp]AB#1: You can’t, you can’t ... [to the camera] Call 911.

SCENE 6
Front Door

GUESTS: Paramedics #1 and #2
Substitute Thing

PARAMEDICS #1 AND #2: wheel SH#3 out on a stretcher]
AB: Careful. Careful. Oh,
wait, wait, wait a second. Here you go. [AB puts car wax and rice on the
stretcher] There you go. Thanks. And don’t you worry about anything. You’re
going to be just fine. Probably. Hhh.

You know, I remember that recipe, that coconut shrimp. And if I recall, it
was another component, a sauce, containing an even more common food allergen:
peanuts. More specifically, peanut butter.

SCENE 7
Kitchen

Unfortunately, there is no straightforward substitute for peanuts or for peanut
butter. Their flavor is simply too unique. But if the issue is specifically a
peanut allergy and not an all out nut allergy, we can build a flavor profile
very close to it by combining three other pastes.

Now, cashew butter is something that we have made on this program before. And
it’s available in almost every health food store and most megamarts these days.

Tahini is ground up sesame seeds. It’s very common in Middle Eastern recipes
like baba gannouj and hummus. It’s usually found in the ethnic aisle. Number
three is in the fridge.
Ever had miso soup at your local sushi bar? Well, it
has been flavored with a fermented soybean paste that is called, oddly enough, “miso”,
which comes in several colors or grades from white to red to almost black.
Now the red type sort of looks like a deeply roasted fresh ground peanut butter
and has that same roasty toasty flavor that is so darn hard to replicate.
[looking at a slice of coconut cake in the refrigerator] Ahh, you like the looks
of that? That’s another show.

Since we never got around to making this sauce in our epic one-hour adventure,
“Down and Out in Paradise”, and since our last guest–well, I don’t think he’ll
be cooking today—I figure, what the heck, let’s take a batch for a spin.

For
that, we will need a food processor and a heap of groceries, including one
quarter cup of chicken broth, three ounces of coconut milk—canned or homemade
will be fine—one ounce of freshly squeezed lime juice—for that island
flavor—the same of soy sauce—one ounce, two tablespoons. Two tablespoons of
garlic. And yes, this is already chopped. That’s because if we try to do that in
here with the sauce, we’ll end up with big hunks and that’s not good eats.
And ditto, ginger: fresh ginger, to the tune of one tablespoon. Then we have a
tablespoon of fish sauce, an ingredient I keep around for making Pad Thai, or,
well, any dish where you want a little flavor of cat food and athletic sock. But
in a good way. That’s why we only use a tablespoon.
Also, a tablespoon of your favorite hot sauce. And then, the secret ingredient,
or one of them: one tablespoon of the red miso. Now I know that it doesn’t
exactly look red. It looks more brown, but compared to the other misos, it’s
pretty red. And before adding anything else, we’ll take that for a short spin,
just to combine; say, five pulses. Good.

And then we’ll add our other two
pastes. The tahini. Just scoot that off there. And the cashew butter, which is
really sticky. There. Purée that until it is a very fine paste. That looks good.

¾ Cup Tahini
¾ Cup Cashew Nut Butter

Now, for a finishing flavor, I think we could use a little herbal addition. For
instance, a little cilantro would be nice, about a quarter cup. Ahh, I’m not
going to measure that. We’ll let the machine figure it out.

¼ Cup Cilantro, Chopped

And there you have it. A fragrant and spicy peanut sauce that doesn’t contain a
single peanut. It’s perfect on beef satay, chicken satay, even weiner satay.
And of course, there’s the aforementioned coconut
shrimp, which will absolutely ...

SUBSTITUTE THING:[ST is a gripper rod, it holds up a coconut shrimp]

Oh look,
I didn’t know that we had a Substitute Thing today. How delight ...

Well, I guess there are some things that you just can’t substitute. Hah hah.
Excuse me.

An estimated 1.5 million Americans have peanut allergies.

SCENE 8
The Kitchen

In case you don’t recognize these cookies, they are the
Chewys from our
award-winning episode “Three Chips For Sister Marsha”. Why don’t you reach out
and have one there. Go ahead, go ahead ... Whoa, whoa, whoa [the plate of
cookies mysteriously slides away from the camera as it approaches] Hah hah hah. That’s terrible. I’m sorry. I’m
sorry. Really. Go ahead. Have another one, have one. [pushes the plate forward,
the plate retreat repeats] Whoa, whoa, whoa. Haw haw.
Disappointing, isn’t it? Well, imagine what it would be like to have a wheat
intolerance or allergy. No bread, no pasta, no pie, no cake. And no Chewys, until now.

[AB looking at the FN's webpage, The Chewy] Well, I can see the original chewy chocolate chip cookie application calls for
two and a quarter cups of bread flour. Now bread flour contains more protein
than all-purpose flour. And that means that when it’s mixed with wet
ingredients, more gluten is created. And that gives the cookies considerable
chew.
Now replacing it. Now, starch makes up most of the volume of flour and
replacing that ought to be pretty simple. We will go with a combination
approach. Brown rice flour has a pleasant flavor, especially in applications
calling for brown sugar. But it’s a little on the gritty side and tends to make
for crumbly baked goods. Now we could smooth that out to some degree with corn
starch which is very smooth stuff. The starch in tapioca flour gelatinizes at a
lower temperature than the starches in either rice flour or corn starch and
that will help to create a pleasantly chewy tooth and a nice rise. Tapioca
flour is used widely in various ethnic cuisines, but I wouldn’t know about that
because I’m not a nutritional anthropologist. But, uh, I know someone who is.

SUBSTITUTE NUTRITIONAL ANTHROPOLOGIST:[she is a beautiful, long curly
blonde] Well, Alton, cassava has long been a staple in South America, Meso-America,
and the Caribbean. The Portuguese took it to their colonies in Central Africa,
where it thrived, and soon became the most important food in the slave trade.
Other names for cassava include “yuca”, “maniok”, “mandioca”, and “aipim”. There
are two main varieties: bitter, and sweet. Although the sweet form can be eaten
without further processing, the tapioca we use is made from bitter cassava,
which contains cyanogenic glycosides. That can cause prussic acid poisoning if
not processed correctly.AB:[enamored] Absolutely ... fascinating!SNA: Nutritional anthropology is my life.AB: And it shows. This ... You see. This substituting thing can really work if
you just go about it right. Of course, substituting this flour, it means
that we’re going to have to also substitute the protein structures. And that
will mean, well ... come here, come here.[now at a giant model of a loaf of bread] When you look at any baked good, be it
a cookie, or a gigantic loaf of bread, what you see, the mass, is mostly starch.
But, if you could look inside, you’d see that the real structure—[to SNA] come here,
come here—is protein. Gluten holds everything
up, like framing on a building, and it also helps to hold together the fat and
water in an emulsion, so to speak.AB: So, what do you think of my model. Pretty sweet, huh?SNA:[not impressed] Mmmph.AB: Uh, yeah. So, what would you replace this structure with?DEB DUCHON: Xanthan gum!AB#1: Aaaah! Deb!SNA: Who is she?AB: Cleaning lady! [to DD] Go away! Come back tonight!DD: Cleaning lady? [to SNA]I’m the me you’re trying to be, curly!AB: And you know what? I think we should give her every opportunity. [to
SNA] You go
ahead.SNA: Xanthan gum was discovered back in the 1950’s when scientists at The
Department of Agriculture discovered that a bacterium found on cabbage plants,
called ... DD: ... Xanthomonas campestris ... SNA: Thanks. ... could be fermented in corn syrup to produce a ... DD: ... polysaccharide, that can actually be used to stabilize emulsions and
suspensions. And when added to bread or gluten-free baked goods, can actually add volume and
viscosity and structure, much like gluten.DT: [enters carrying the prizes, hands them to AB]AB:[to SH4] Listen, um, thanks for coming. Um, I’ll call you.SNA: Don’t.DD: I’ll see her to the door. We wouldn’t want her to GET LOST!AB: No, no, we, we wouldn’t.

I realize it sounds a little on the alien side, but xanthan gum is actually
pretty simple to find. A lot of megamarts carry it in their baking sections. You
can certainly find it in health food stores. And then, of course, there’s that
whole world wide web thing.

SCENE 9
The Kitchen

GUEST: BA

Our gluten-free chewy chocolate chip cookies begin with eight ounces of unsalted
butter—that’s two sticks—in a small, yet heavy saucepan, over low heat. While
that melts, bring together in a food processor 11 ounces of brown rice flour—it’s about two cups—one and a quarter ounces of cornstarch
—about a quarter
cup—one-half ounce of tapioca flour—about two tablespoons—one teaspoon of xanthan gum, one teaspoon of kosher salt, and one teaspoon of baking soda. Spin
to combine. By the way, you could just sift this, but I hate sifters.

Time to build ourselves a cookie batter. Our melted butter goes into the work
bowl of your favorite mixer, along with 10 ounces, by weight, of light brown
sugar, and two ounces, by weight, of regular old sugar. Engage your paddle
attachment at medium speed for one minute or until your mixture looks something
like this.

10 Ounces Light Brown Sugar
2 Ounces Sugar

Then add one egg, plus one egg yolk, two tablespoons of whole
milk. Don’t use skim! One and a half teaspoons of vanilla extract. And then
bring on the dry goods. Do this at a very low speed, and do it very slowly or
you will make a hideous mess of things.

1 Whole Egg +
1 Egg Yolk
2 Tbs. Whole Milk
1½ tsp. Vanilla Extract

Now, the batter is technically together, but we need the chips. Twelve ounces of
semi-sweet chocolate chips. You could do this by hand, but I like to let the
machine to do it.

12 Ounces Semi-Sweet
Chocolate Chips

Next, you must chill your batter for one hour in the refrigerator. If you don’t,
the cookies will spread unattractively on the pan. You don’t want that.
Hour’s up. Time to scoop. I like to do six two-ounce portions on each
half-sheet pan, or on a cookie sheet, lined with parchment paper. I find that
this sure is the best way to do this.

Into a 375 degree oven, and I wouldn’t try
more than two pans at one time. Halfway through the cooking process, you are
going to want to rotate the cookies. What does that mean? Well, it means that
the top pan goes to the bottom, the bottom pan goes to the top, and each of the
two pans gets rotated 180 degrees. It sounds a lot harder than it actually is.
There.

375 Degrees

When the cookies are done, pull them out and let them cool on the pans for two
minutes, before transferring to cooling racks.

Mmm. I dare say this cookie is
better than the original. And so we see that sometimes, substituting can lead us
to a better place than we were in the first place.

AB:[enters from behind] BA! What are you doing here?

[we are now left with the conundrum of whether we
have been listening to AB or
BA for the whole show]

BA:[puts on sunglasses] Parole.AB: Listen, bro, there is no way on earth that you can substitute for me.BA: Oh yeah? Watch this. [replaces his shades with AB glasses, to the
camera] Well, I hope we’ve inspired you to look beyond the recipe and into
the kaleidoscope of culinary possibilities made possible by the artful
substitution. Whether you’re trying to avoid a last-minute emergency market run
or a trip to the Emergency Room, substitutions can be good eats. See you next
time.AB:[waves]